Les Billets de Monocle

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « La juge s’habille en Prada »

    « - Pourquoi les femmes ont besoin de tant de sacs ? T’en as un, tu fous tout ton bordel dedans et voilà c’est réglé !  – La mode...

    30 October 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Gambling Man »

    Qui était l’homme le plus riche du monde le 15 février 2000 ? Non ce n’était pas Bill Gates (2ème), ni son cofondateur Paul Allen (3ème). Ce n’était...

    24 October 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Le pistolet »

    On sait que le monde se divise en deux catégories : ceux qui ont un pistolet chargé et ceux qui creusent. Le retail aux Etats-Unis, c’est la même...

    18 October 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Le domino »

    John Sherman, pas sûr que son nom vous dise quelque chose. Pourtant une loi importante porte son nom aux Etats-Unis, le Sherman Act. Elle date de 1890 et...

    09 October 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Une seule idée »

    Chaque semaine, lorsque je commence à rédiger le billet, j’ai bien en tête cette consigne de François Mitterrand, qui tenait lui aussi une chronique hebdomadaire au début de...

    09 October 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Le Tri »

    En violet l’Euro contre Dollar, en orange la volatilité implicite 3 mois de ce même couple de devises. Sur le premier, on voit que le niveau de 1.11...

    18 September 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Kelly en Images »

    Toutes mes excuses pour ce billet tardif, Antoine est en vacances et les marchés bougent donc entre le four, le moulin et le billet c’est le rush. Avec...

    13 September 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Where do we go from now ? »

    Il y a un mois le Nikkei perdait 13% en une journée, le SP500 7% en deux jours et la volatilité touchait un plus haut. Il y a une...

    05 September 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Enough is enough

    ‘Friday morning, San Francisco, office of EcoR1 Capital, a three billion dollar biotech fund. Oleg Nodelman comes across this week's Monocle Note...

    30 August 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Explanations

    This week, after receiving several requests, the note details the fund's performance since the beginning of July. These questions are more than normal: the performance (A share) is...

    23 August 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    "The predictions of Nostraberus"

    "Pinuche is tripping over his grey cells," reveals Le Dodu, "just imagine that this old rag is making up some crushed words for a competition that's all about...

    08 August 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Beware Of the Multiple

    Three years ago, at this very time, we were preparing for the Patrimonia trade show. We were in the process of printing the map...

    30 July 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    RanXerox

    Normally Antoine looks like a guy you wouldn't hesitate to ask for directions. That wasn't the case last Thursday, when he looked more like RanXerox,...

    24 July 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « x2 »

    Yesterday (briefly), Aurora Innovation shares touched $5.24. This represents an increase of 104% since we bought it a month and a half ago. This is obviously a...

    18 July 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Extrapolation

    The SP500 is up 18% since the start of the year, driven largely by a handful of megacaps. The market is paying increasingly high multiples for these...

    11 July 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The 60-kilo guys

    Let's start with a little riddle this week: it's 1 January 1971 and I suggest you invest $100 in either the classic S&P 500...

    03 July 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Duolingo d’or

    Luis Von Ahn You may not know the name, but you've all used his products before Luis Von Ahn was born in...

    26 June 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Ukrainian Express

    I wanted to write this post on the implications of elections for management. But after wandering on the subject, I remembered Buffett, who at the...

    19 June 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Dog head up, dog head down

    The Lululemon action is a bit like a yoga class. We've been following Lululemon's success for a while now, so when we've seen it get worse...

    04 June 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    You Always Hurt The One You Love

    Librairie Galignani, rue de Rivoli. I saw this 600-page book entitled ‘YOU ALWAYS HURT THE ONE YOU LOVE’ and wondered what it was all about...

    28 May 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    China on the road to North Korea

    George Magnus is a member of the China Centre at Oxford University. Prior to that, he was chief economist at UBS for twenty years (1995-2016). He is therefore familiar with...

    22 May 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    So long Mr. Munger

    Omaha 5.00 am. It's raining and cold. This is the 3rd year I've travelled to the depths of the United States to attend Berkshire Hathaway's high mass, which has always been led by its two high priests who are almost a hundred years old.

    15 May 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    A Radiant Future

    It's not the 'passive management system' that's unbeatable, but a handful of stocks over a specific, defined period.

    07 May 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Human stupidity: an illustration

    At a time when food inflation has just risen by 35% in 4 years, it's admirable to be fighting over the price of an "affordable luxury" handbag.

    24 April 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Is Netflix fantastic?

    If we summarise Netflix since 2020, we had a huge boost - which is logical - during the Covid period, with an explosion in users from 167M to 222M...

    18 April 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    4 billion kilos

    Today we're going to tell you about a company whose products you've already consumed without even knowing it existed. The company is Lamb Weston, and it makes a product so common you'd forget there were giants behind it: chips!

    11 April 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Defensive stocks = rubbish

    One of the corollaries of the recent tech craze is that other sectors have been abandoned. Allocation to so-called defensive sectors (healthcare, consumer staples, utilities) has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.

    03 April 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The volumes are wrong!

    The volumes we all follow on US equities are wrong, and the reality is much lower than the figures shown. This means that it is one more indicator that is disappearing to track market trends.  

    21 March 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    “What the hell is risk ?”

    “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys....

    15 March 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    "The big slap"

    Last Thursday, Teleperformance's share price took a good slap in the face, like a foot on the skateboard from the 3rd floor landing. The share price fell from €130 to...

    08 March 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Risk and the bubble

    The best way to avoid risk is to face it head on. The risk for Nvidia is a valuation bubble following the emergence of Artificial Intelligence. ...

    01 March 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    "The red flag is no longer a red flag".

    Obelix may have his magic potion, but the Burgundians - like Antoine - have their wine. And the sacred object is not the pot, but rather the bottle....

    22 February 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Self-service »

    At Monocle, we don't shy away from complicated situations, but sometimes it's just too much. This week, we took a look at Frasers, the British distributor, and the story of its founder,...

    15 February 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Poster Boy »

    Last year, there weren't many IPOs in the Cloud. In fact, there was only one: KLAVIYO, because after...

    01 February 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The fight

    I don't know if the most telling image to visualise active management today is the nightmare scenes in Terminator after the machines have taken...

    25 January 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Watch out, it's got a kick

    If you're interested in the capital cycle, there's an interesting book to read, Capital Returns by Edward Chancellor. That said, I passed it on to Charles who...

    17 January 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Known knowns »

    Asked in February 2002 about the connections between Saddam Hussein and terrorist organisations, Donald Rumsfeld replied: "There are known knowns, things we know that we...

    10 January 2024

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The Post-it

    I don't know if you remember the scene in Asterix where Abraracurcix, having had too much wild boar, lies down under a tree to recover. A leaf...

    22 December 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Still there

    Michael Osterholm, head of CIDRAP (Center for Infection Disease Research and Policy), in the United States on 30 November: "COVID-19 is still there and it's still important, even...

    18 December 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Our friends the cannibals

    We hear about company share buybacks every day, but more often than not they are merely cosmetic and have little effect. However, if used wisely...

    07 December 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    127 hours

    In April 2003, Aron Ralston fell inside the canyon he was exploring. As he fell, he caught his arm between two rocks. After...

    29 November 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The end of the holidays

    Every time the central banks raise rates to signal the end of the holiday period, there comes a time when the markets don't want to hear it. This...

    17 November 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    "Magnificent Seven: the end of the epic?

    You've read everywhere that the rise in the US market this year is due to the "Magnificent Seven": Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. We...

    10 November 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Ça balance pas mal à Paris… et ailleurs

    On arrive dans la dernière ligne droite de l’année. Les résultats du troisième trimestre sont en grande partie sortis et le moins que l’on puisse dire c’est que...

    03 November 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Spin-offs are Grrreat ! »

      Ci-dessus c’est le graph de l’action WK Kellogg, le roi du corn flakes. Le groupe historique vient de se séparer de son activité américaine en en faisant...

    19 October 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Long taux longs

    Depuis des années, sur notre partie obligataire nous ne faisions pas grand-chose. Avec les taux à zéro, il y avait peu à gagner, et beaucoup de coups à...

    13 October 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Test de réalité pour une favorite Covid »

    La presse a beaucoup parlé ces derniers jours d’Instacart. Créée en 2012 par un ancien d’Amazon, l’entreprise américaine permet aux clients via son application d’envoyer un « personal...

    29 September 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Dumb Money »

    En 2021, au top de la frenzie, j’avais trouvé un indicateur simple qui était l’action Gamestop. La société, spécialiste de la distribution de jeux vidéo, était déjà bien...

    21 September 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Pleased »

    Le billet arrive tard cette semaine parce que je me suis retrouvé empêtré dans mes analyses. Je voulais vous faire un truc simple sur Dollar General, à la...

    15 September 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    « Attends, attends… »

    3 Janvier 2022, Teleperformance, le leader mondial de la relation client est la star du CAC40. Toujours dirigé par son fondateur, le groupe et ses 400.000 salariés sont...

    08 September 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    It's time to get out the umbrella

    The indices rise, the media follow and euphoria returns. Meanwhile, I see that: 1. consumer confidence is at an all-time low. The recent publication...

    31 August 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Adyen: a 50% drop in three days!

    Adyen, a flagship of the European tech sector which entered the STOXX 50 with great fanfare three years ago, has lost half its capitalisation in the space of a few days...

    24 August 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Winning by not losing

    Investing is a long-term game, and to win, you need to be there at the end of the game. At Monocle, we follow the advice of...

    21 August 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Tranquille

    La plupart des résultats du Q2 sont sortis. Je voulais vous faire un topo sur Apple, mais Shawn Tully, un des anciens de Fortune, l’a déjà fait. « Le bénéfice...

    10 August 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    100% Emotions

    August 1, markets are high, rates are high. Generally speaking, they don't work together. How do you decide? By looking at a file in detail. I'll take Netflix, which...

    03 August 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Money for nothing

    It's no exaggeration to say that streaming has completely infiltrated our lives in recent years. Whether it's music or video, most of us are already...

    28 July 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    A good place to fish

    It's not a secret: since the start of the year, the performance of the main US indices has been driven by a few big names. The S&P 500 "market...

    21 July 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The Hand of God

    Article this week in the Financial Times by Robert Armstrong - one of the old hands - entitled "The Seven Mercenaries". He talks about the 7 stocks that...

    18 July 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Long and Good

    Bond prices fall when interest rates rise. If I have in my hands an A bond that pays me 3% a year, and tomorrow a...

    05 July 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    $339

    In September 2018, Apple released version 4 of its Apple Watch. Release price: $399. In September 2020, Apple released version 6 of its Apple Watch....

    28 June 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Watching paint dry

    Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Zweig recently reprinted a series of articles in which he described the 7 virtues of great investors (which you can find here). Each...

    20 June 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The Death of Accounting

    In 2016 Baruch Lev released his book "The Death of Accounting". It's a field he knows well: he spent his entire career as a professor of accounting at...

    14 June 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Two hundred billion

    This is the market capitalization of Hermès. This is unreasonable. For a long time, Hermès was valued at a very high price because it had ...

    07 June 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Thinking in bets

    We took a short position on Nike via options a few weeks ago, when the stock was trading at $125 (versus $105 today). Like what...

    01 June 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Scaling back

    This week, the fund has turned positive for 2023.

    24 May 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Munger Unchained

    Ah, the long May weekends, the perfect opportunity to escape for a few days, three weeks after my arrival at Monocle AM. In my case, it was to the United States. And not just anywhere: Omaha, Nebraska.

    10 May 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    It's all calm

      Above, in green, is the SP500 index, in orange is the implied volatility index (VIX), and in purple is the Open Interest on VIX futures contracts.

    04 May 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    When no one wants it anymore...

    1/ Climate: Globally, approximately 50 billion tons of greenhouse gases are emitted each year. Out of this total, livestock accounts for 7 billion tons, which is 14% of the world's CO2 emissions.

    19 April 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    It's Clearance Sale Time

    After spending several months cooped up, consumers let loose once the pandemic was over. With their pockets full of money, they began to spend lavishly (on clothes, computers, furniture, etc.)

    11 April 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The Gorilla's Dance

    "I have a lot of respect for Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, and his team. But with what we are releasing today, it will force them to rise and come to the dance. And I want the world to know that we're the ones who made them dance." (Nadella, February 7, 2023).

    05 April 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Buying Shorts

    After spending our days searching for something to buy, without success, we ended up finding something to sell.

    28 March 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Rivian the next Tesla ?

    A few years ago, when Tesla was a controversial stock, we invested in its bonds. From a financial perspective, it wasn't clear whether Tesla would succeed.

    23 March 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Swipe right and it’s a match!

    If the name Match doesn't ring a bell, I'm sure some of you are familiar with several of their brands. And who knows, you might have even met your better half on one of their apps. Fifteen years ago, only 3% of married couples met online, compared to 45% today.

    16 March 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Good news about Volkswagen

    Last Friday, the Chief Financial Officer of the Volkswagen Group (holding a 6.7% stake) shared the group's expectations for the year 2023. Vehicle sales are projected to increase by 15% to reach 9.5 million units.

    08 March 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The most valuable company of Germany

    Exactly 7 years ago, on February 27, 2015, the Financial Times ran the headline: "Volkswagen Warns of No Margin Improvement This Year." Despite this "calm down" from management, Volkswagen's share price reached an all-time high of €225.

    01 March 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Gear up, Get Ready, Go!

    Optimism is a rare occurrence around here, I know. But I'll try to put it to good use.

    21 February 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    An arm and a leg

    Two burning questions dominate the current market landscape: 1) Central banks and inflation, and 2) the subsequent impact of the first question on the 2023 markets.

    15 February 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Mom, I Missed the Plane

    On January 27, we penned our thoughts about Meta after liquidating half of our position: "We maintain strong confidence in the long-term trend, but given the prevailing circumstances, we exercise prudence concerning the forthcoming results." Four days later, we closed the remaining position ahead of Snap's results.

    06 February 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    An important week

    I'm not going to start this post with a pun or a movie reference (which is not typical of me, as you would agree).

    30 January 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    21 Years Ago

    This year is off to a strong start. But it's nothing compared to 2001. 21 years ago, the Wall Street Journal headline read: « Aggressive action by the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates has helped to revive the Nasdaq Composite Index, which was up 12.2% in January, one of its best Januarys ever. »

    27 January 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    The Era of Profit Warnings is Upon Us

    We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but the corporate landscape is at odds with the surging markets. This week, we present a concise recap of the latest happenings on the frontlines.

    18 January 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Sugar

    "Do you still know any buyers today, ones even dumber than you?"

    11 January 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    A new year

    I wish you all the best for this new year. The 2023 performance started on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., which means we need to move quickly to analyze the 2022 results, learn the necessary lessons, and position ourselves for the forthcoming 12 months.

    04 January 2023

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Thank you!

    As we near the end of 2022 – though we must remain cautious given the prevailing volatility in the markets – we wanted to take this final Post before Christmas to express our gratitude.

    23 December 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Follow the cash

    Le Billet de Monocle - Follow the cash | RSS.com This week, we're following the advice of Warren Buffet. His thesis: a good company creates wealth,...

    15 December 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Give me a one-handed Economist

    « Donnez-moi un économiste à une main. Tous mes économistes disent 'd'un côté...', puis 'mais d'un autre côté...' ».

    08 December 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Valuation Training - Part 2

    You've all been waiting for it: here are our insights into last week's valuation Tutorial.

    29 November 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Tuto Valo

    Zoom, la débâcle. Cours de l’action il y a 2 ans : 427$. Cours de l’action aujourd’hui : 76$. Une chute de 82%.

    24 November 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    High Kick

    Last Thursday's move on the SP500 (+5.54%), to give an image, was like a guy the size of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar walking into the bar...

    17 November 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    It is urgent to wait

    The burst of the bubble has begun. The airship in which we, investors, find ourselves, slowly loses altitude. To our great pleasure: the closer we are to the ground, the less brutal the fall.

    November 9, 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Only the Paranoids Survive

    META is an important position in our fund (5%). After its publication last week, the stock lost a quarter of its value.

    02 November 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    We Look Closer – Le cas Orpéa

    Performance is built by making good deals as well as avoiding bad ones. You all know our motto "We look closer".

    27 October 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Deutsche Qualität

    Two weeks ago, Porsche went public. With almost 300,000 units sold by 2021, a turnover of 30 billion euros...

    18 October 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Bond Kings on the return

    "Don't you find me attractive? These are the words that Ms Robinson (Anne Bancroft) utters to Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) when she tries to seduce him...

    11 October 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Nobel, Price and Statistics

    There are three months left until the end of the year. Q3 results start in a two weeks with Netflix. Everyone is talking about inflation, including .....

    05 October 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Reserve strategy - Phase 2

    As a subscriber to this post, you are most likely aware of the strategy used to manage the Monocle fund. If you are not...

    27 September 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Groundhog Day

    If you've never seen the film Un Jour Sans Fin (1993) in which Bill Murray plays a weatherman that has to cover the "Groundhog Day" subject...

    21 September 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    New Factsheet

    Dear Investors, for this week's post, the focus is on the Monocle fund with the Factsheet for August 2022 presenting a new format.

    14 September 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Black-out? 🕯️

    Autumn 2021: European gas stocks are reduced. The price offered by the Russians is too unattractive to stockpile, and buyers start to look for...

    06 September 2022

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    A personal note

    For those of you who don't know (a majority I imagine), I finished my studies at Paris-Dauphine a little over a year ago.

    30 August 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Return Of The Jedi

    For those of you who don't have the reference, the title of this post echoes the third part of the first Star Wars trilogy...

    23 August 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Volatility and reserve strategy

    Hello, the markets are going up so opportunities are scarce, which leaves us time to work on the rest. I spent some time on the...

    17 August 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Pink scenario, black scenario

    Hello, I hope this post finds you in good shape in these ever lively August markets. Today we are playing the simulation game: ...

    10 August 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Vlad l’empaleur

    Most of the Q2 results are now out. There is no simple analysis to be drawn from them: upside and downside surprises.

    03 August 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Double trouble

    SNAP released its Q2 results on Thursday evening causing a massive exodus of investors. The stock plunged* another 40%! What happened: A...

    26 July 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Summer checkpoint

    Dear investors, before the avalanche of quarterly results that we will be talking about for a while, we would like to take this opportunity to give a progress report on the fund.

    21 July 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    SAS enters turbulence

    This week we talk about SAS Airlines, the Scandinavian airline. SAS proposed a restructuring plan last February, following the effects of covid. The aim: to reduce the...

    05 July 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Destocking in sight 👟

    Nike released last night its results for the past quarter. The inventory level reached a record level: $8.4 billion. That's more than...

    28 June 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    A new rabbit out of the hat?🐇

    A tanker truck. That's about the size of the wizard's hat of one of Europe's most important financial institutions: the ECB. In the category...

    21 June 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    It's the end of vacations 🌴

    Y Combinator (YC), the world's most prestigious start-up incubator (with Airbnb, Coinbase and Reddit on its roster), is raising the alarm with its...

    14 June 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Statement

    Last name : Dimon First name : Jamie Nickname : The Diamond Age : 66 years old Distinguishing feature : Always wears the same cufflinks Position : CEO of...

    07 June 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    New job for a new life? Hurry up...

    You could already see yourself there, with a latte in your right hand and a MacBook air in your left, ready to start your new job in this company...

    31 May 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Stop messing around

    It's good to be a CEO of a large company. A little too much, in our opinion. In 2021, the CEO of a publicly traded U.S. company is paid on average almost 15...

    23 May 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    We got Eloned

    Elon Musk, who used to be "our good friend Elon Musk", has done a 180 on Twitter: he doesn't know if he wants to buy anymore. The reason given was that...

    18 May 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Twitter - Elon Musk : Take it or Leave it

    In these seismic markets, any profit is good to take, no matter how big. At Monocle, small gains with small risk, we take. So when we are...

    10 May 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Amazon: it's going to be short

    Amazon released its quarterly results last Thursday. Here's the overview by division (operating income): Amazon North America: $1.6 Billion loss Amazon International...

    03 May 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    Netflix stock: defeated by K.O.

    The company's value last November: $300 billion The company's value today: $85 billion An exceptional 70% drop. Could we have anticipated it? Numerous indications...

    27 April 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    A little trip to the Bellagio?

    A white Rolls strolls slowly, in a biblical silence - disturbed only by the sound of the engine and the squealing of the tires on the asphalt. It’s very hot...

    19 April 2022

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    The split ✂️

    Normally a split is when the price of a stock has risen a lot, we redivide the old stock into X new ones, so that the price is affordable again for...

    12 April 2022

  • Les Billets de Monocle

    How to beat the high cost of living?

    Let me tell you the story of John, the protagonist of our story, born in the beautiful state of Wisconsin in the United States (more precisely on the edge of the cold waters of the...

    05 April 2022

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    Make your life easier

    A little over a year ago, we were in the waiting room of the hospital. The doctor comes in and says, " It' s for now ". I grabbed the prepared bag...

    30 March 2022

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    The Tyrolean Ramparts

    At Monocle, for several months now, our fixed income pocket has been mainly made up of very short-term government bonds. Short maturity means low yield, so why this choice?

    22 March 2022

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    Checkpoint : where are the "Sexy Stocks" ?

    We have often denounced how irrational some valuations had become, far from any fundamentals and overbought by an overheated market. Today, where are...

    15 March 2022

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    Until the last drop...

    Last night, at the opening of the American market, the price of WTI oil touched $130/barrel. The highest level since...

    07 March 2022

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    "This country is at war..."

    It was in these explicit terms that Neville Chamberlain (British Prime Minister) officially declared the United Kingdom at war with Germany on September 3, 1939. The situation at that time...

    28 February 2022

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    Chinese Wall in Covid weather

    Just this morning, President Xi Jinping was hammering that the city of Hong Kong must put in place "all necessary measures" to combat the epidemic...

    16 February 2022

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    Amazon 1 – Facebook 0

    At the end of this earnings season, Facebook went out on a stretcher (-25%), Amazon under the cheers (+15%). In valorization, it is now $600 Bn for Facebook...

    09 February 2022

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    When markets play Russian roulette

    On leverage, Warren Buffet once said: "If you're smart, you don't need it; and if you're stupid...

    01 February 2022

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    End Of the Movie For Netflix

    The stock drops 22% on the announcement of Q4 results. "Netflix disappoints in terms of new subscribers, raising doubts about its ability to grow."....

    25 January 2022

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    Growth and Disillusionment

    In February 2021, Peter Sellis, an obscure product manager at Snapchat, announced in an investor presentation that Snapchat had "years of growth in excess of 50% ahead of it." The..

    19 January 2022

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    What to do?

    Dear readers, dear investors, After an exceptional year 2021 on the markets, during which so many records were broken, it seems to be time to make...

    11 January 2022

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    L'Oréal, because you are worth it

    The world's number 1 cosmetics company is now paying 55x earnings. This morning, the L'Oréal share is back on its highs, at 430€. An increase of +70% since...

    03 January 2022

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    The Saint Bartholomew's Day of the Analysts

    In the French movie "Le Pacha", Jean Gabin, who plays a police commissioner who is fed up with the underworld, calls for a Saint-Bartholomew's Day for mobsters. Me, when...

    07 December 2021

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    Veggie Steaks and Sausages: What do we think?

    Beyond Meat is the American manufacturer of meat substitute products based on vegetable proteins: understand "Sliced without chicken". At first glance and after having passed...

    01 December 2021

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    The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

    I told you in a previous post: macroeconomics is not our primary expertise. However, with such an explosive cocktail - explosive inflation, interest rates at the level of the...

    22 November 2021

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    Orange, the 1=1+1 Theory?

    [Reserved for an informed audience: we're going to add up] 🤓 You probably know the 1+1=3 theory. One company merges with another, the new group...

    16 November 2021

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    The Grand Casino

    On March 11, I wrote: "Here's our business process today: 1/ Turn on the screen; 2/ Watch the Gamestop course; ...

    09 November 2021

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    Pfizer, The Breach of the Century

    Pfizer published this morning its 3rd quarter results and specified its forecasts for the year 2021: - $82 billion in sales - $23 billion...

    02 November 2021

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    Small Personal Victory

    September 24, 2021: Petrofac (2% of the fund) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announce that they have reached an agreement that ends 4 years of investigation. October 4,...

    25 October 2021

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    Back To The Future

    "See you later... much later!" is how Professor Brown says goodbye to Marty McFly as he leaves for a trip...

    18 October 2021

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    Opening Of The Quarterly Ball

    The quarterly results ball will open in a few days. Each company will publish its accounts and compare itself to the previous year to display its growth rate: a metric...

    11 October 2021

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    Good News About Petrofac

    Petrofac (6% of our fund) announced on Friday that it had reached a settlement with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) acknowledging their guilt in "failing to prevent" acts...

    28 September 2021

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    LVMH, Correction You Say?

    At €630, LVMH shares are trading 11% lower than their historical high of mid-August, €710. The financial press is therefore talking about a correction. LVMH is now valued at 310...

    21 September 2021

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    EasyJet, Fasten Your Seatbelts : -15% Today

    During my few flying sessions over Ile d'Yeu, during the stall exercises - nerve-wracking moments during which my instructor asked me if I had any...

    13 September 2021

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    All-In On Advertising!

    In the second quarter of 2021, Facebook charged 47% more for its advertising offerings than it did 3 months earlier. At Google, the "price per click" jumped 51%. And...

    07 September 2021

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    Peloton goes off the rails

    The more athletic among you have probably already heard of - or are even savvy customers of - Peloton, the company launched in 2012 that offers bikes...

    31 August 2021

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    I Hope You Like The Heights

    August 23, 2021, the S&P 500 approaches 4500 points, its historical high. In August 2020, after the health crisis rebound, it was 3350 points: +34%...

    24 August 2021

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    Summer Game

    It's summertime, time to check off crossword puzzles and sudokus on a mattress by the beach. And at Monocle, we want to contribute to the effort...

    17 August 2021

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    Pfizer: 1 Billion Doses

    Pfizer has just passed the hallucinating milestone of 1 billion doses of vaccine distributed. The pre-covid Pfizer is $42 billion in sales and...

    10 August 2021

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    Amazon: Complicated Landing

    On Friday, after the release of its results, Amazon lost 7.5% over the session. This is its second biggest drop in ten years*. So we would expect a...

    03 August 2021

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    Shiller's PE (Nobel Prize In Economics)

    One of the most frequently used metrics to determine the overall level of valuation of financial markets is Robert Shiller's PE. Shiller in a few words: economist...

    27 July 2021

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    50 Dollars

    Fifty dollars is the average price paid per user for big acquisitions in Tech. Here are the details: 2006: Google buys YouTube for $1.7 Bn with...

    19 July 2021

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    The Weather Is Not Good: Let's Stay Covered!

    One of the big topics in the macroeconomic news is inflation. To be perfectly honest, this is not our primary expertise but the very good quarterly review...

    16 July 2021

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    History Repeats Itself

    Good evening, Tonight I want to share with you the excellent analysis of GMO Asset Management (New York fund managed by the famous permabear Jeremy Grantham that we appreciate for the quality of...

    09 July 2021

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    Time To Talk

    No inspiration for this post: in all honesty, I don't understand the level of valuations, nor the speeches heard to explain these levels. And as you...

    24 June 2021

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    Back home

    Back after a not so easy move back from England to France in the middle of the pandemic. The markets remain atonic: almost nothing is happening. I'm rereading the...

    17 June 2021

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    Nice Transaction

    Yesterday we closed our small line Translate Bio (0.5% of the fund) - a biotech company specializing in the development of messenger RNA-based drugs - which...

    10 June 2021

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    Cautious positioning

    The fund's positioning remains cautious, which we believe is appropriate with markets at historical highs and valuations...

    27 May 2021

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    Meditate

    Regarding the fund, the acquisition of M6 by TF1 is excellent news. TF1 was already a good deal for us - the dividend representing a yield above...

    20 May 2021

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    Market of Fools!

    This week I'm pushing the envelope on Pinterest: in the call held after the earnings release, CEO Ben Silbermann announced that they were expecting for the next...

    05 May 2021

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    Pinterest: Deception

    Pinterest released disappointing results on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the stock was down 14% (noting that this only takes it back to its price at the beginning of the year). I had...

    29 April 2021

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    Netflix: It's Getting Complicated

    Three of our companies published their results at the beginning of the week: Danone, Petrofac and Orange. At Danone (4% of the fund): results in line with our expectations....

    22 April 2021

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    Q1 Results Release

    The fund has been rising since the beginning of April, led by Petrofac which recovered +35% over the month to return to its February level. This rise is partly due to the fact that the fund has...

    15 April 2021

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    Apple : Enemy N°1

    Meeting on Clubhouse (the new social network), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook - worth $830 billion), Daniel Ek (Spotify, the world's leading music site - worth $51 billion) and...

    25 March 2021

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    Danone&Faber, TF1&M6, Petrofac

    News on several of our lines these days: Danone (5% of the fund): departure of Emmanuel Faber. No opinion on the board's decision to thank him. From a point of view of...

    17 March 2021

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    Short & Efficient

    Here is our business process today: 1/ Turn on the screen; 2/ Watch the Gamestop price; 3/ If this number is higher than $20, turn off the screen....

    11 March 2021

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    SLOW DOWN

    For some companies, the pandemic has had a more than positive effect on their bottom line. Their stock prices followed suit. That effect has now passed. The...

    03 March 2021

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    APPLE: NO

    ... No, it's not progressing. I've seen the headlines "APPLE: REVENUES ABOVE $100 BILLION IN LAST QUARTER" pass by like you. But the explanation is simple:...

    25 February 2021

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    New wave in the US ?

    The media announce that the pandemic is behind us: the number of cases is decreasing every day in the US + the arrival of vaccines. But if we listen to Michael Osterholm, the...

    12 February 2021

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    Pinterest Episode 2: Results Release

    There is a lot of buzz about the U.S. indices posting all-time highs these days. But given the level of dispersion, I think it's safer to analyze the lines...

    05 February 2021

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    Gamestop: Revealing the market's folly?

    It will not have escaped your attention that we are living in extraordinary times. In terms of health, politics, economics and the market, there are few...

    04 February 2021

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    Pinterest The Return?

    The drop is due to volatility on Petrofac: the stock lost 15% last week, but has recovered +17% since Monday. Our position, presented last week, does not...

    28 January 2021

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    Petrofac Update

    On Friday Petrofac fell by 30%. An impressive figure, but one that only brings the stock back to where it was two months ago. The news that caused this drop was...

    19 January 2021

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    #Critical Sense

    The main argument of those who refute the idea of a bubble is that with rates low, stocks are worth more. Yet a company like SAMSUNG, whose...

    14 January 2021

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    Zoom On Zoom

    Zoom is now worth $130 billion, the same as Facebook was at the end of 2013. At the time, Facebook was earning $1 billion per quarter and held $11 billion in cash. Today, Zoom...

    24 December 2020

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    Covid 19 Vs Restaurants

    Covid Vs Darden: The vaccine will be here in a while, but for now the virus is progressing. In the US, the number of daily deaths just surpassed the...

    10 December 2020

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    The Nikola Case

    It is difficult to understand what is happening now if we look at the evolution of the indices, and more enlightening to look in detail at a particular case. So let's take a look at...

    02 December 2020

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